SarahTheCoat

damn-myleg said: Now I wonder what the meta about "all those ciggys in his mouth" says😂

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They DEFINITELY suspect that it’s implying EXACTLY what you think it is 🤣

ie: Showing John how much girth he can take 🤣

haha, yep!

Just the one … a calculated risk … a Christmas treat

(He was never the same after that Christmas. It’s as if he had finally woken up … and he started to research, to investigate, to deduce … first a middle name … then deeper and deeper he went. Things like this can come to pass when an otherwise highly disciplined intellect allows his body a little bit of distraction … just a small breath of … chemistry. Just five minutes …)

Impressions from Sherlock BBC:  A Scandal in Belgravia

July, 2019

@ebaeschnbliah: This is good. What do you make of the fact that Mycroft, the brain, offers him the distraction? 

Good question, @gosherlocked  As I interpret the story told in Sherlock BBC, it is Mycroft who downright forces Sherlock to take the case of The Woman. It is also Mycroft who offers Sherlock the cigarette … a chemical drug, after all … a minor substiture for the ‘real’ thing. And it is also Mycroft who releases Jim, Mr. Sex, who then together with Irene, prevents that the Flight of the Dead takes off. If Mycroft represents Sherlock’s ratio, then it is Sherlock himself, his own will, who starts to investigate a certain topic. 

Irene, the libido, beats Sherlock and exposes him to her chemistry. Later, John, the ureliable narrator, notices at Christmas that the counter on his blog, where he offers the public a censored picture of Sherlock Holmes, has stopped at 1895 hits. Mycroft, the ratio, allows a ‘calculated’ shot of chemistry to test a theory …. and then Sherlock starts to investigate earnestly and intensively. He starts with x-raying the phone, the heart, then he wants to know who hides behind the H. of John’s middle name. Hamish is the Scottish equivalent of James. James/Jim, Mr.Sex, is already hidden in plain sight among the other names of the ‘eternal friend’. The Flight of the Dead from ASIB evolves to the Flight of the Sleeping in TFP, where Sherlock is able to safely land that plane. And it looks like the blog, the story of Sherlock’s life, gets now written by himself … a man who, by now, has parted from his facade. 

All of this happens inside Sherlock’s head, innitiated by his own rational mind … hesitation, resistance, conflict, disgust, scorn, doubt and fear included. In the words of ASIP: the whole thing is ‘self administered’. At least, that’s how I read the story. :)

@the-signs-of-two

@ebaeschnbliah: And now this may be splitting hairs but when Mycroft offers the ciggie Sherlock is looking to his right. After accepting it we see him and Mycroft in profile, looking to the left. This could be interpreted as Sherlock taking a 180 degrees turn. ;)

Interesting idea, @gosherlocked  It reminds me strongly of …  “You just went the wrong way last time, that’s all. This time, get it right.“ from TFP. Turning round, changing direction … walking the opposite way. I guess such a turn of direction could additionally be supported by a visual presentation too. 

Also interesting is with the play on mirrors/glass/reflection we get the flame to light the cig actually within Sherlock as it also lights the cigarette, further enforcing this idea that it is a metaphor for sparking something within the character - and mirrors certainly have their own significance throughout the show - with great meta out there on their extensive use, including their use in TAB for creation of the fake bride (ultimately shattered) or the mirror buildings of Roland Kerr Further Education College where John chose the wrong building, the glass/mirror in TFP that was used to meld Eurus and Moriarty and was/wasn’t there for Sherlock and Eurus or you can even consider the original pilot episode a mirror universe of sorts. 

In this scene it is often hard to tell if we are viewing Mycroft and Sherlock through a mirror or one of several windows frames in the scene - from inside the morgue through the door (most are shot from here), from outside the window that looks in, from outside in the hall (where the grieving family is) looking in through the door, or from the door on their right. However, if you really look at the angle of these on the cigarette lighting scene you will see that the window is in front of Sherlock but the the glass is so close that the morgue door has to have literally been moved right up against his and Mycroft’s back for the filming of the scene to get those kind of light reflections - and doesn’t that have a profound metaphorical meaning - he was literally pressed between panes of glass at that moment - the morgue at his back and the window at his front.

Also interesting is the shapes, because I’ve seen a great meta somewhere on the circles being used throughout to represent emotion and the squares to represent logic and in this scene there are a lot of the squares until the moments Mycroft talks to Sherlock about why he might want a cigarette, then we get the lower angle and we can see that on the ceiling there are these large circular light fixtures. Just three of these moments. When he offers it - when Sherlock points out that it is low tar and Mycroft says that Sherlock hardly knew her - and when Sherlock goes to walk away and it is clear that it is a ‘danger night.’

fascinating discussion! I also noticed the visual framing of sherlock within the window panes. I dimly remember a (s3 semester?) meta about similar shots in TGG where sherlock is framed in the lab door window while he's examining the shoes, but it makes it look like sherlock is the one pinned in the slide. @just-sort-of-happened wrote a lot about the circles/emotions and squares/logic visual theme that runs through the entire show. @kateis-cakeis made an extensive video meta examining the mirroring (often literal, mirror-image blocking/framing) between ASIP and the pilot.

It's so interesting looking anew at these earlier episodes, in light of the later ones. So many recurring and developing themes!

THE  HAMISH  INVESTIGATION

Experimenting with a time frame

During the wedding in TSOT the audience in front of the TV gets to know the story of how Sherlock finally found out which middle name hides behind the H. of John H. Watson. 

This happens during a sudden revelation which leads Sherlock to the identity of Jonathan Small, the ‘Mayfly-Man’, the photographer who turns out to be responsible for the stabbing attacks at Privat Bainbridge as well as Major Sholto. The revelation is triggered by Jonathan Small himself, by the flashlights of his camera. It takes place during the very short time span when Sherlock’s glass of champagne slips out of his fingers until it shatters on the floor.

But when exactly did Sherlock start his investigation, regarding John’s middle name?

TBC below the cut …

Keep reading

OOH, excellent! I love how that five part structure keeps coming up and the fives all consistently track with each other.

HMM, now it occurs to me to wonder if there is a set of five relating to moriarty’s identity. In ASIP, the scene where john meets mycroft is deliberately written so as to make the audience wonder if mycroft is moriarty. In TBB, the “M” texting Shan is left ambiguous (could be mycroft, jim, or even “mary”). In TGG, the scene at the pool is deliberately staged to make sherlock/the audience wonder, however briefly, if john is moriarty. In TRF, moriarty poses as a cabbie, and has a fake identity as a tv actor. On john’s blog, he posts comments as “anonymous” and as “theimprobableone” (i think they are both moriarty, at least, there may be other theories)

Anyway, that’s a bit of a tangent, from the john/james thing. John’s identity is also multifold, doctor, soldier, blogger, bi, friend, husband, father, etc. “Hamish” representing the hidden part, his bisexuality, being “introduced” to sherlock and irene (sherlock’s sexuality) all couched with mirrors and metaphors. John is the “three patch problem” sherlock is figuring out.

These are really brilliant observations @ebaeschnbliah ! Indeed the five parts pattern is repeated again and again in this show, and I’m so thrilled you discovered this one to add to the rest of them! And certainly, @sarahthecoat, John is Sherlock’s “three patch problem”. Can’t stop thinking about it, I suspect even John’s reactions to Sherlock’s investigations are reflected in the different seasons. I hope you don’t mind me dissecting this topic further? (more under the cut; it got bit lengthy…)

Keep reading

WOW, that's a very detailed examination! I sure hope we get to see john watson, loving husband, in s5! ;)

THE  HAMISH  INVESTIGATION

Experimenting with a time frame

During the wedding in TSOT the audience in front of the TV gets to know the story of how Sherlock finally found out which middle name hides behind the H. of John H. Watson. 

This happens during a sudden revelation which leads Sherlock to the identity of Jonathan Small, the ‘Mayfly-Man’, the photographer who turns out to be responsible for the stabbing attacks at Privat Bainbridge as well as Major Sholto. The revelation is triggered by Jonathan Small himself, by the flashlights of his camera. It takes place during the very short time span when Sherlock’s glass of champagne slips out of his fingers until it shatters on the floor.

But when exactly did Sherlock start his investigation, regarding John’s middle name?

TBC below the cut …

Keep reading

OOH, excellent! I love how that five part structure keeps coming up and the fives all consistently track with each other.

HMM, now it occurs to me to wonder if there is a set of five relating to moriarty's identity. In ASIP, the scene where john meets mycroft is deliberately written so as to make the audience wonder if mycroft is moriarty. In TBB, the "M" texting Shan is left ambiguous (could be mycroft, jim, or even "mary"). In TGG, the scene at the pool is deliberately staged to make sherlock/the audience wonder, however briefly, if john is moriarty. In TRF, moriarty poses as a cabbie, and has a fake identity as a tv actor. On john's blog, he posts comments as "anonymous" and as "theimprobableone" (i think they are both moriarty, at least, there may be other theories)

Anyway, that's a bit of a tangent, from the john/james thing. John's identity is also multifold, doctor, soldier, blogger, bi, friend, husband, father, etc. "Hamish" representing the hidden part, his bisexuality, being "introduced" to sherlock and irene (sherlock's sexuality) all couched with mirrors and metaphors. John is the "three patch problem" sherlock is figuring out.